What a Challenge!

Happy Sunday! This picture isn't the best but since we are remodeling my stamp area it difficult to get things done the way I am used to. (sigh) But when it's finished it will be great! Today my card is elegant, I think.

I used the sketch challenge #53 from Card Patterns to design this card but also used elements of other challenges. At Gina K's blog (A Day in the Life) she's having an illustrator's blog hop and a sale that you won't want to miss (you can see details on the same blog hop post). The challenge is to use at least two of the new colors of card stock and one of the new stamp sets just released. As my good fortune would have it something told me to order the card stock. Yippee! So on my card I've used Creme de Menthe and Innocent Pink. The base of the card is pure luxury white card stock. The background is peach floral frenzy (a free digital paper from Gina K at Stamp TV). I cut strips of creme de menthe and covered them with a gorgeous organdy ribbon from Gina K. The image and sentiment is from Spring Florals stamp set. The crocus image is cut and embossed with a square Nestability and mounted on a Shapability. I added 8 half pearls to the Shapability. The sentiment is stamped and then punched from 1-1/4 inch punch and sponged with Certainly Celery ink and mounted on the 1-1/2 circle punched and sponged with pink passion ink. The image and sentiment was stamped with Momento Tuxedo black. I colored the crocus with colored pencils. Winner of the challenge gets the entire March release and a chance to be March guess designer. WOW! That would be awesome!

This card also is for two other challenges:

• Card Patterns: sketch #53 (as mentioned above)
• Clearly iStamp Challenge (CIC#8): It's hip to be square. Make a square card.

Thanks for dropping by today. Don't forget to check out the marvelous sale that Gina is having. Hope you have a wonderful week and happy stamping!

Happy inking,

Best Wishes Butterfly

Woo Hoo! Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. I am so pleased! Just a quick note tonight. This was a fun and easy card to do.

The stamp set is called Hope is Faith from Gina K. Until the end of February, Gina will donate $2 for every Hope is Faith set sold. All proceeds go to Haiti relief. What a worthwhile cause. The background paper is Basic Grey Indian Summer. The embellishments are stickers.

This card works for a couple of challenges:

• Papertake Weekly Challenge: Sketch #35. Great sketch!

• Caardvarks: Stuck on You challenge: use stickers on your card. Not usually my style but I found out I have a lot of neat stickers that are sitting around. I have to try this more often.

Have a wonderful Friday and a super weekend. I'm not sure that it will be much of a crafting weekend. Lots to do on the weekend but I'll see if I can squeeze in some time to share something with you. Take care!

Inky hugs,

The Beauty of Flowers

Happy Wednesday to ya'll! Just a quick post to show you the card I did for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #55. The mission this week was to use flowers on your project.

I used the Flourishes Calendar Set #3 doe the image and the sentiment is from a Gina K set called Inside and Out. I used Nestabilities and QuickCutz to frame the image and sentiment. The decorative edge is a Martha Stewart edge punch.

That's it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Thursday!

Warm winter hugs,

Clean and Simple

Happy Tuesday! Heading into midweek. On Sunday evening my husband decided to start remodeling our basement and in the last three nights we've torn out everything that's getting torn out (except the carpet). So now we have to start putting things back together again. But it's amazing how much room we now have. So I haven't had much card time and since the basement is torn up I've lost my photography area so I had to scan this card. So the pic is probably not the best. Hopefully we'll get back to "normal" at some point.

My card today is clean and simple. Not much explanation needed. The image and sentiment are from Gina K Designs A Year of Flowers designed by Melanie Muenchinger. I paper pieced the roses with two different colors of the same designer paper. I do love this ribbon though. It's such a nice pattern.

So this card is for several challenges:

• Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger: The inspiration comes from Stamp It! Cards their newest publication. There's a chance to win 4 Gina K stamp sets just for leaving a comment so check it out.

• Memories of Time: a sketch challenge with great prizes from Our Craft Lounge.

• Stamp TV: a paper-piecing challenge. One of my favorite techniques. I think it makes absolutely lovely cards with little effort.

So there you have it for today. Tomorrow is Wednesday and hump day and then we'll be swinging toward the weekend. Yippee! Thanks for stopping by and hope your week is going wonderfully. Take care!

Happy inking,

Hang in There

Welcome! I hope your week is off to a great start. Yesterday my DH suddenly decided that we would start remodeling our basement. And off we went. Tonight we tore out a cupboard and some of a wall. We have one more wall to tear out. But I can now add "nail ripper" to my resume. LOL! Unfortunately that's about my expertise when it comes to construction. But I suppose I will be learning along the way. I started this card last night and squeezed in time to finish this evening (in between nails!).

I used a Gina K set designed by Theresa Momber named Hang in There. I just think it has the cutest little critters and they are all hanging on for dear life. The background was created with the branch from the set. I used Nestabilites and Shapeabilities to cut out the images and the sentiment.

This card uses sketch #52 from the Card Patterns Challenge. There's a great prize up for grabs this week so you should check it out.

Thanks for stopping today. Check back and I'll let you know what else I can add to my resume this week. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Warm winter hugs,

Purse-a-lope

Happy Sunday! I'm so bummed the weekend is almost over. I had such fun this morning working on a few projects. I'm sharing one of those tonight.

This cute little purse was made for a challenge on Stamp TV called Anything-but-a-card challenge. Carolyn asked us to create these cute little purses to fill with something special for someone. You can get the pdf template of how to make these at the link above. I made mine with a light green envelope. The background paper is from BasicGrey Origins. The butterfly is from Gina K's Hope is Faith. (For every Hope is Faith set sold this month Gina will be giving $2 to Haiti relief.) The sentiment is from another Gina K set called Spring Florals. The top edge is punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch. I added the ribbon and buttons as embellishments.

Hope you had a great weekend and the coming week will bring all good things. Thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget to leave me a comment to be part of my blog candy.

Inky hugs,

Easter Blessings

Happy Saturday everyone! Thanks for stopping by. I've been a bad blogger this week. It isn't that I haven't made anything. It's that I didn't post much. Today I have an Easter card for you. My first for 2010.

The card base is Gina K pure luxury card stock in lemon yellow. The crocus image is from a new Gina K set called Spring Florals. The grass is from a set called Hang in There. It's a bit difficult to see in the picture but the background is sponged with So Saffron and Lavender Lace ink. The purple wedge piece is faux stitiched and sponged with Lavender Lace. The sentiment is also from Spring Florals and punched out with the scalloped punch backed with a yellow scalloped punch. To finish it off I added the purple flower with the button center.

I made this card for several challenges:

• Friday Sketchers: sketch challenge #90
  
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge: what rocks your world? Flowers! I love flowers and use them often in my stamping. They remind me of my mother who grew the most beautiful flowers!
• Cuttlebug Challenge: #71 Stitch it! I used faux stitching. My sewing machine is under our TV. Can you tell it gets lots of use? LOL!
  
• Stamp TV: color challenge: yellow and purple (they go so well together!)

Hope you liked my newest creation. May your weekend be a wonderful one.

Happy inking,

Glitz and Glamour

Happy Monday evening as it continues to snow here. We shoveled about 9 inches off the driveway this evening after work and it's covered over again. Our warning downgraded to an advisory but was extended until 1 pm tomorrow. It was supposed to have been over by 7pm tonight. No such luck! But my card tonight is far from white. This card is for the Clearly Inspired challenge #7. The challenge this week is to "glam it up."

I used a digital stamp from Digital Delights called Love Birds. I cut it out with a circle Nestability and backed it with a scalloped circle Nestability and added gold Stickles to each scallop. The heart-shaped sentiment is also cut from a Nestability and I embossed it with gold embossing powder. The sentiment reads "The best thing about me is you." And I added gold Stickles around the heart shape also. I added ribbon and a Martha Stewart border punch, three self-adhesive rhinestones in the corner and two buttons and a rhinestone at the bottom left corner. This was my DH's Valentine card. Check out the challenge at Clearly iStamp blog and join in the fun!

Thanks for stopping by today. Make it a great week!

Warm winter hugs!

Three in a Row

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all! I just got phone calls from both of my boys so I am a happy mother. My DH took me out to dinner and we had a lovely time. We went early so that we didn't get caught in the winter storm that is again approaching us! Can you say, "Enough snow already!" I am so looking forward to spring.

We painted a bedroom yesterday and started discussing the next project over dinner tonight. Some much needed repairs to the house in the works! Today I was looking forward to a mini vacation we will be taking in mid-March. We will be flying on an airplane with a couple other relatives. One is my husband's six-year-old nephew and I saw a Tic Tac Toe board one someone's blog that I thought would be fun to make for the trip to keep DH's nephew busy on the plane, at least for a little while. If you are the person who had the original idea, please feel free to contact me and I'll give you credit. After I saw it I forgot to mark down where I saw it and couldn't find it again.

So this is an Altoids box that I decorated. I used my Cuttlebug Alphabet to cut the letters for Tic Tac Toe and then used some little images from the Wee Tees stamp set from Gina K to give it an on-the-go look; like a travel game. I'm entering this into the Little Paper Shop challenge. The challenge was to use red, white, and black.

Here's a side view of the box and below is an inside view. I used the see-through little rocks that you often use in the bottom of an aquarium. I made X's and O's and fixed them to the rocks and then added a piece of magnet to the back of each one.

I drew a grid on the inside of the box because adding paper would have been too much for the magnets to stick. So you can store the playing pieces inside and not lose them. Great fun to make . Hope you like it.

Well, we're at the start of another week. Hope your weather is warmer and drier than ours. May your week be blessed with all good things. Take care!

Flourishes What is Your Cup of Tea? Challenge

I'm getting this challenge in at the last minute. It's due this afternoon! The challenge at Flourishes blog is to create a card that is inspired from your favorite drink. Now don't get me wrong here. I do like to drink wine on occasion but it certainly isn't my drink of choice all the time. LOL!

The wine glass comes from a set called A Charmed Life by Melanie Muenchinger. The set comes with tons of little charms to add to your wine glass. I added the birthday cupcake since my card is for a birthday. The sentiment comes from the same set. The background circle punch outs are from paper that a friend sent me last week (Hi, Val! Thanks again!). And I added some ribbon from Michael's.

Just a quick one today. I'm not sure how much time I'll have on the weekend but hope to be back with some blog candy for reaching 5,000 hits on my blog. Stay tuned!

Kaboodles Challenge

A very happy and snowy Wednesday evening to you all! I am tired of snow but I count myself fortunate that we don't have the 30+ inches that some people on the east coast have. I believe we are supposed to see the sun tomorrow but it will be short lived with another snow storm predicted for Friday. It's enough to make you beg for spring! So I was thinking spring when I made this card!

On the Kaboodle Doodle blog, the challenge is to use stripes and spots. Here's what I came up with. The sentiment is from Timeless Treasures by Theresa Momber. And the roses are from Melanie Muenchinger's A Year of Flowers. The dotted background paper is free digital paper from the Stamp TV web site and the striped paper I bought at Hobby Lobby. I used a Rectangle Nestability and a Scalloped Rectangle Nestability to frame the sentiment and added a bow made with my Bow Easy. Hope you like it. Try out the dots and stripes challenge over at Kaboodle.

Here's hoping the rest of your week turns out to be lovely and snow free. Wouldn't that be lovely! Stop back soon and check out some blog candy. I just rolled over to 5,000 hits. Although not as great as some blogs it's a great start for me. I so appreciate everyone who stops in to see my projects. Stop back anytime.

Warm winter hugs,

Finish with a Flourish

Hello again on this sunny Sunday! I have two posts today so you can scroll down to see my other post. I am posting my last two challenge cards for Flourishes in this post. My first card is for the pink challenge. The main color was required to be pink.

My card uses the Calendar Set #3 for the image, cut out with a circle Nestability and backed with a scalloped circle Nestability. And I edged the bottom with the Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. I love that punch and I bet that takes over as a favorite as spring gets closer. The sentiment is from Arranged with Love from Gina K Designs. I fairly simple card!

My second card today is for the challenge to use your favorite Flourishes stamp set. Since I only have a few Flourishes sets I don't have lots of choices. This is another flower from the Calendar set #3. I love flowers and use them a lot!

On this card I used the spotlight technique. I stamped the flower twice, colored it once and then punched a section of the colored flower and popped it up against the uncolored flower. These look much better in person I think then on a picture. This is a little 4.25x4.25 inch note card. I use the Fluer de lis Shapability to back the image and since the card is small I let the background hang off the side of the card.

So there you have it for today! I'm off to get ready for Super Bowl company. Good luck to both teams and I hope it's a good game. Of course I have to say, "GO COLTS!"

Flower Power

Happy Sunday to you all! I do believe that my absolute favorite thing to stamp is flowers. My mother loved flowers and I think it rubbed off on me - to a degree. She had a green thumb that unfortunately I didn't inherit. LOL! But I try!

Today the sun is shining brightly for the moment. It may not last very long and the snow is glistening. I am longing for spring. So I did another card using Melanie's A Year of Flowers. This time I used all kinds of colors to make it bright and springy.

I partially embossed the green background with the Tartan folder. I cut the image and sentiment out with scalloped circle Nestabilities and then cut the next size up to back the image. I added the ribbon and rhinestones as embellishments and tied my bow with the Bow Easy.

Today is the last day to participate in the challenge, but even if you don't participate you should check out some of the amazing cards this challenge produced. The other participants all have done some lovely work! Such inspiration from them all! I have one more post for today and then I have to get ready for my company. Have a great Sunday!

Wedding Day

Happy snowy and icy Saturday to you all. Fortunately we didn't get nine inches of snow but we did get three. The snow is not a big deal. It's all the ice that's underneath it! We started out as rain and it all froze. So we have an icy mess. My DH and I shoveled our driveway this morning but left some snow covered because of all the ice underneath. The snow will make it easier to get out if we need to.

Onto better things! My card today is for a challenge over at Melanie Muenchinger's blog Hands, Head and Heart. She challenged anyone who had her set A Year of Flowers to design a card. Up for grabs is her brand new set that will be released next week. No one has seen it but I have no doubts that it's fabulous! Also up for grabs is a guest designer spot on her blog. How fun would that be!

So I saw this very cool double embossing technique the other day and knew I had to try this out. My daughter has a wedding tomorrow and she asked me to make a card for the bride and groom. I double embossed this card, making a cardboard mat with the heart shape cut out and then using the mat I embossed with the Victoria embossing folder. Then I went back and embossed the heart shape into the spot where it would go. I added the sentiment that just happens to be from another stamp set designed by Melanie Arranged with Love and then stamped, colored and cut out the rose, stem and leaf. I just love everything about this card!

My daughter originally asked if I could put their names in the heart but the Cuttlebug alphabet that I have was too big so we added things to the inside of the card: the wedding date and their names with the Cuttlebug Harmony alphabet. My first time using them. I just found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby.

So if you by chance you have the set A Year of Flowers by Melanie, hop on over to her blog and check out this challenge! Just right for a snowy day! Thanks for stopping by. I have to get the house in order for company for the Super Bowl. GO COLTS! (I hope you Saints fans out there won't hold it against me. Although I will be wearing my Dallas Clark (44) jersey tomorrow and routing for the Colts, if we lose I don't mind losing to the Saints. I think they deserve it too!)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Warm winter hugs,

CPS and Flourishes

This is my second post tonight. Since I had this card done I wanted to get this one posted too before my time ran out. I don't think I've every participated in the CPS Card Sketch Challenge before but this sketch really got me interested. In fact I tried several different things before deciding I really like this one.

Isn't this sketch interesting? I'm not sure where I got the striped patterned paper but I love the colors. I cut the triangles with a square Nestability and then cut it in half on the diagonal. The stamped image is from Whimsical Autumn by Carolyn King and distributed by Gina K Designs. I cut that out with a circle Nestie, embossed it and dabbed some pumpkin pie ink on. The sentiment is from Arranged With Love by Melanie Muechinger and distributed by Gina K Designs. I cut it out with Spellbinders, embossed and sponged with Pumpkin Pie. I added rhinestones to the triangular shapes.

The image was colored with Bic Mark-its and I outlined the vines with a Gold Spica pen. I tried to capture the glitter in the picture but it's much better in person. It really gives it a nice sparkly effect.

And of course this card also is for a Flourished challenge. I've done several of their challenges this week so check out my other entries below.This challenge was for a fruity birthday card. It just occurred to me that not everyone considers a pumpkin a fruit. Well I do. LOL! And I am so pleased with the results!

Thanks for stopping in again! Come back anytime.

Warm winter hugs,

Back with more Flourishes

Well, how was your Thursday? I'm not sure I want to leave Thursday and head into Friday this week. Never thought I'd hear myself say that! I live for the weekends. But we are under a winter storm warning. Ice and snow headed our way; up to 8 inches of snow. Those of you on the east coast would probably be happy with the 8 inches since you are expecting 20+ inches. I honestly don't mind the snow, it's the ice underneath that I hate. I did bring my work computer home with me today so if it's really nasty in the morning I could opt to work from home tomorrow. Since I answer phones that's not always the best thing to do. It's hard to answer the phone if you aren't there (grin). But I'll think of something.

Well, onto prettier things. My card tonight is once again for a Flourishes challenge. The challenge was to make "cut it out and pop it up" card. The image on my card is from Flourishes Calendar Set #3. I stamped and colored two images and then cut some out and popped them up.

I cut the image with a rectangle Nestie and then rounded the corners. Cut another Nestie of Purple cardstock with a scalloped rectangle. Added that gorgeous ribbon. I was amazed at how well the ribbon coordinated with the image. And I finished it off with adding the sentiment.


Here's a view of the popped up image. I used watercolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color the image. You have until Monday to check the challenges at Flourishes and participate. I'm having a ball.

Stay safe, warm and dry this weekend. If I can hole up here at home you can bet I'll be crafting away. Thanks for stopping by and see ya'll soon!

Warm winter hugs,

Flourishes Sketch Challenge

Hello!And Happy Wednesday. If you read yesterday's post you already know that Flourishes is having a big 1 year anniversary and lots of challenges and fun prizes. So today I used the sketch from one of the challenges to make this card. I am so pleased with the way this card turned out. The sketch is definitely a keeper! Thank you Cindy!

I used Basic Grey paper from Indian Summer for the background paper and used a Martha Stewart punch to punch the border at the bottom of the card. The focal image is from one of Flourishes Calendar sets (#3 set). Isn't it beautiful? The sentiment is from a set called Classic Greetings. I'm not sure who that set was made by; I won it in a blog candy. I added the pink flower because I thought it highlighted the beautiful flower stamp.


On the inside, I again used the pink background paper from the front and the Martha Stewart border punch. The sentiment on the inside is from Inkadinkado. Stop by Flourishes and check out all the challenges and hopefully win a great set of stamps!

Thanks for stopping. May the rest of your week be as smooth as silk. Our boss proclaimed Friday as Blue Friday at the office so I can wear my Colts jersey to work! GO COLTS! See you next time!

Happy inking!

Flourishes Birthday and Challenge #52

Happy Tuesday night to you all. This week Flourishes is celebrating their first birthday for challenges and they are offering a week full of challenges with 6 chances to win for participating in the challenges and another chance to win if you visit all the blog posts for each challenge. That's 7 chances to win a beautiful stamp set. I don't have a lot of Flourishes stamps but I do have a few. My card tonight showcases two stamp sets that I used to make my Christmas cards this past year.
This first challenge card is from the Frame It Challenge. The background image, the music score, is from a set called Christmas Music. It's a gorgeous image and I've used it to make several cards at Christmas time. The three images stamped in the frame and the sentiment are from another Christmas stamp set called Drummer Boy. I used my Nestabilities to first cut out the image and sentiment and then used the scalloped rectangle Nesties to cut out my frame. I popped the frame up with pop dots to give it some depth. I also added the flower with the button center to embellish the card. My first Christmas card in February. I'm ahead of the game! LOL!

Check out the Flourishes challenges and maybe win a free stamp set. Free is always fun! You have until Monday February 8th to enter. I will be back with more challenge cards for Flourishes this week, so stay tuned!

Tomorrow is Wednesday already. These weeks are flying by. Take care! Stay warm and safe.

Warm winter hugs,